


not that kind of pirate

by ABSedarian



Series: Thirty Worlds (AU Challenge) [24]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Challenge on Infinite Earths, Enchanted Forest AU, F/F, Misconceptions, Misunderstandings, Pirate AU, Pirate Regina and Princess Emma, bed sharing (sort of), i'm very slow with this challenge but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-10-23 01:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17674088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABSedarian/pseuds/ABSedarian
Summary: AU Challenge / Challenge on Infinite EarthsPart 24: Pirates AUAll Captain Mills wants is to enjoy a quiet evening at Granny's tavern with her crew but a runaway princess throws a wrench into her plans.This can stand as a one-shot but I can also see myself adding another chapter or two this if there's interest.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Regina leans back in her chair with her eyes closed and rests her feet against the edge of the open fireplace. She can feel her body relaxing with the warmth that slowly creeps up her body from the soles of her booted feet and the almost soothing sounds of the busy port tavern around her. The ale is helping, too, she thinks, raising the tankard to her lips and taking a long, slow drink. 

“Here, Captain.” Her second-in-command appears next to her. “Maybe you should eat something first.”

Regina sighs and sits a little straighter, putting the ale on the rickety small stool next to her chair and reaches for the bowl of stew being handed to her. “Thank you, Red,” she says with a grin. “I didn’t even realize how hungry I am.”

“Yeah, like always.” Red hands her a spoon and a piece of still warm bread that’s giving off an enticing, nutty smell that’s making Regina’s mouth water. Red pulls up the other chair and lowers herself into it a little gingerly.

“How are your ribs?” Regina asks casually around a bite of the spicy beef stew. 

“Eh.” Red shakes her head. “A few more days and I’ll be good as new.”

“I worry about you,” Regina admits. “You take too many risks. You might be a werewolf but you’re not entirely indestructible.”

Red snorts her ale into her own bowl of stew. “Look who’s talking,” she mutters exactly loud enough for Regina to hear her perfectly.

“I have magic, Red, that’s a little different.”

“Didn’t help you much when that Kraken tossed you against the mast and you nearly died,” Red points out. “Or that time the sea witch decided to try and pull you in two.”

“To be fair, I did use magic to get out of that one,” Regina insists.

“Yeah, only to fall onto the main deck from the height of the crow’s nest.”

“That landing was a little rough,” Regina admits. “I couldn’t get my magic to stop the fall entirely.”

“Ha!” Red gloats. “So you admit you live just as dangerously, with or without magic.”

Regina nods, conceding the point graciously, tipping her tankard in Red’s direction in a silent toast but Red is not looking at her but towards the bar with a scowl on her beautiful face. Regina is too tired to worry much and this tavern is a safe place for them, being that it’s run by Red’s grandmother, so she doesn’t bother turning around. They are safe, their ship is concealed by magic, and she wants some peace and quiet for however long she can make that last, which usually isn’t long at all. Red will tell her if it’s anything she needs to worry about.

"Uh-oh," Red says softly as if she heard her thoughts. “That looks like trouble.”

Regina half turns in her chair, almost lazily, to face the door. She sees a slight figure just inside the door, features hidden beneath a hood that's pulled deep into the face, but Regina can still tell it’s a woman. Everything about her screams she’s on the run from something or someone, and she hopes Granny will be able to help. It’s Regina’s first night off in many months, however, so she turns back to the fire and her dinner, knowing that Granny will certainly let them know if they need to get involved.

“She looks familiar,” Red thinks out loud. “Something about her …”

“Anyone I know?” Regina knows she couldn’t sound less interested if she tried, but a subconscious part of her is keeping tabs on the situation. She keeps her eyes trained on Red who is watching what’s going on, her face creased in concentration. When there is no reply from Red, Regina shrugs but her eyes move back to the woman who is now moving towards Granny behind the bar.

Regina is just about ready to relax again when Red gasps and lets out a string of curses, ending with, “Oh shit, that’s not good.”

Regina faces the way Red is looking and sees the cause for her colorful language immediately. “Hook,” she growls low in her throat. “I thought we’d seen the last of him.”

“Whatever he’s doing here can only be bad news,” Red agrees. “He should know better than to set foot in here.”

“Well, he probably didn’t expect to see us,” Regina reminds her. “Nobody knows we’re back from Neverland yet.”

They watch as Hook and two of his men make their way over to the bar and straight for the young woman who recoils in fear or disgust or both. “I think I know who she’s running from,” Regina mutters under her breath.

“Maybe,” Red says. “Maybe not,” she adds when the tavern door opens once more to let in a group of royal guards.

With a hissed curse, Regina jumps up. “Red, take the girl upstairs,” she orders. “I’ll take care of Hook and distract the guards.”

Red nods and moves immediately, only registering from the corner of her eyes that most of their crew members got up when they did, waiting for their captain’s command. 

“Red!” Granny whisper-shouts as soon as she’s close enough. “Get the girl out of here.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Red says. “Give me the key to the captain’s room.”

Granny hands it over without a word, then pushes the young woman into her in her haste to get them both out of the bar. Red grabs the young woman’s hand and bodily drags her out the door next to the kitchen behind her at a run.

At the stairs, the woman stops moving. “Red,” she says firmly. “Wait! But I thought you were … How are you—”

Red whirls around. “So it _is_ you,” she says in wonder to the girl she hasn’t seen in many, many years. Well, her goddaughter is most definitely all grown up now. “Emma.”

There’s a huge ruckus in the bar behind them — no doubt Regina and their crew taking care of their problems — and Red is impatient to be out of here. “Let’s go.”

“Where are you taking me?” Emma is panting as they run up the narrow wooden stairs. “Wait!”

“No time,” Red urges. “I’m taking you to safety.”

Red can hear the door open downstairs, can hear footsteps hurrying along the hall. Just one set of boots, and she’d recognize those anywhere. “Get inside,” she tells Emma — opening the door to Regina’s room at the end of the hall and pushing her inside before closing it again — then waits for her captain. She deserves a warning.

“What are you doing?” Regina hisses when spots Red lurking in the upstairs corridor. “The place is swarming with royal guards.”

“Yeah, and I think I know why,” Red replies with an anxious look. “The woman they’re here for? That’s Princess Emma.”

Regina gapes at her second-in-command. “Princess Emma? As in Snow White’s daughter?”

“Yes, my goddaughter,” Red confirms. “What do we do?”

Regina shakes her head. “Well, it’s pretty clear, isn’t it?” she mutters. “That lout, Hook, must have abducted her for ransom and the guards were sent out to rescue her. So I say we lie low and send the princess back down, so they can do what they came here for.”

Behind them, the door to Regina’s room flies open with a bang. “No!” Emma hisses urgently. “You can’t do that. Please don’t make me go with them.”

Heavy boots are hurrying in their direction, and both Red and Emma are staring at Regina, waiting for her to make a decision. Finally, Regina nods. “Back in the room,” she whispers, turning Emma around by the shoulder, then pushing her into the room. “Red, unless you think Granny needs you downstairs, it might be best if you stayed in your room as well.” 

Without waiting for a reply, Regina follows Princess Emma into the room just as guards can be heard coming up the stairs. She listens at the door for a moment, hears the guards banging on the first door, demanding entry, and figures there’s only one way out of this. She’s really too tired to play the evil pirate but there’s no time to explain her plan and needs must.

Regina turns around and sees the princess standing motionless in the middle of the room but wringing her hands so hard the knuckles are ghostly white. There’s a look in her eyes Regina can’t quite decipher but she can’t afford to think too hard about that. “What are you waiting for, Princess,” she hisses, mindful of the guards working their way down the hall outside. “Lose the cape and dress and get into that bed!”

The princess gasps at the command but to Regina’s surprise she looks at least half as intrigued as she looks shocked. Then she sees resignation flitter across the pretty face and settle in the most beautiful green eyes Regina has ever seen. 

_Wait, what?_ Regina’s brain halts in the middle of forming another thought. _Beautiful?_

“You really are as evil as everyone says you are, aren’t you?” 

Emma’s question tears Regina from her thoughts. It irks her, the barb hitting a place that hadn’t hurt in a while, and she reacts more harshly than she probably should have. “You ran straight into a pirate tavern,” she hisses as she unbuckles the belt holding her weapons and sundry small bags, dropping it onto the small desk by her side. “What did you expect?”

“Too much, obviously,” comes the resolute reply.

If Regina really had nefarious intentions with the princess she’d be impressed by her defiance but in the situation they’re in she mostly finds it annoying. And maybe a little admirable but she would never admit that. She can’t help rolling her eyes, however, as she quickly pulls off her boots. “That’s what you get for asking a pirate for help,” Regina says casually but there’s a twinkle in her eyes that Emma misses completely. “Now get out of that dress and into that bed.”

“I didn’t …” Emma starts but stops as she sees Regina opening the laces at the top of her shirt. “Yes, Captain,” she breathes instead as she drops her cloak on a stool and starts pulling off her simple dress, her proud, defiant eyes never once leaving Regina’s face.

Regina’s mouth goes dry as she watches Princess Emma practically tear off the dress until she’s suddenly standing before her in nothing but a pair of linen drawers covering her sex. Regina had not expected her to be wearing so little underneath her dress, had not actually planned on getting Emma _naked_ , and the sight coupled with the proud, defiant look in Emma’s eyes takes her breath away. And _oh_ , does Emma have reason to be proud. She is stunning, all long, lean muscles, completely unexpected in a supposedly spoiled princess. 

Regina swallows hard as Emma turns and climbs into the bed, pulling the covers over her almost naked body and allowing Regina to breathe again. For a moment, Regina doesn’t move, _can’t_ move, can do nothing but stare at the spot where Emma was just standing a second before but then the sound of the guards rapping on the door across the hall — Red’s room — jolts her into action.

She opens her shirt all the way but leaves it on, not entirely sure why. She loosens the laces on her leather breeches to look the part in case she needs to leave the bed to really convince the guards but before she can open them entirely there are heavy knocks on her door.

Regina dives for the bed as Emma lifts the covers and the second Regina lands right on top of the princess, the sheets covering them again, Regina realizes that she just made a mistake of monumental proportions. A mistake that only feels worse when Emma spreads her leg a little to make room for Regina’s body between them.

Regina brain is entirely useless but her body has no trouble doing what it thinks would feel good and her hips press harder against Emma’s. The bed squeaks, the headboard hits the wall, Emma moans low in her throat, and all Regina can do is try not to combust on the spot. 

“Keep moving,” Emma hisses, then lets out another wanton moan but there’s a glint in the green eyes that haven’t left Regina’s. “So the g-guards c-can hear ...”

The groan Regina lets out in response is anything but fake and her body starts moving as it has been told, causing the bed to creak and thump rhythmically. Their eyes never stray from each other’s as they moan in unison but from the small grin on Emma’s face it is painfully clear to Regina that Emma is only acting for the sakes of the guards while _she_ … 

Regina closes her eyes in dismay.

The knocks outside are louder the second time around — or maybe they’ve been there all the time without Regina hearing them — and now a voice yells, “In the name of the Queen, open this door!”

“What do you want?” Regina turns her head and growls loudly at the opening door, keeping her voice at its lowest register and her face hidden by her hair. She makes sure Emma’s face can’t be seen.

The door opens wide and two burly guards step into the room. “We are looking for Princess Emma.”

Emma freezes underneath her but after only a hitched breath she begins moving again, opening her legs wider and pulling them up, running her calves along the leather of Regina’s pants until it’s very clear even to the densest of guards what it is the two people in the bed are doing even with the sheet covering their bodies. 

Regina doesn’t stand a chance in hell stopping the moan that bursts from her chest as Emma locks her feet behind her thighs and forces their bodies closer together. “As you can see,” Regina pants with extreme difficulty, voice hoarse, “there’s no princess here, just a common …” 

She leaves the sentence hanging, knowing the guards would come to a quick and entirely wrong conclusion. As expected, one of the guards mutters a hasty “Yes, Sir,” as he beats a hasty retreat, pulling the other one with him out the door and back down the hallway. 

Regina tracks their steps until she hears the knocks on the next door, and only then does the tension leave her body which is another of the many mistakes she made this night. Her body melts into Emma’s, allowing their naked torsos to come in full contact and Regina is almost overwhelmed by how good it feels. Yes, it’s been a while since she has shared her bed with someone but that can’t be the only reason why Emma feels so good against her, can it? Regina knows she has to move, has to get away from this temptation before she does something she can never forgive herself for, and as much as Regina is a pirate and has been for most of her life, she has never taken advantage of a woman.

Regina attempts to roll away from Emma, preferably straight out of this bed, but Emma’s legs around her tighten. As Regina looks up in question, Emma’s eyes meet hers and Regina imagines they are darker than before, but it could just as well be caused by the low light from the fireplace. The look they share is intense but then Emma relaxes her hold a little and lets out a quiet laugh. “Well, that was more fun than I thought it would be at first,” she says around a smile, “wasn’t it?”

_Fun, yeah_ , is all Regina can think, her whole body coiled into a tight spring, sitting on the edge of a sword, ready to either jump up and run or dive in and kiss the damned smile off that damned princess’s face. 

“I always thought there’d be kisses first though,” Emma continues as if reading her mind, and Regina begins to tremble. “We can always remedy that, can’t we?” 

The facetious question and the hands roaming up her back and into her hair finally push Regina into action. It takes superhuman effort but she pushes herself up and off the princess, jumping out of bed in the next second. Regina turns away immediately, knowing that if she catches even a glimpse of Emma’s body again, she won’t be able to do what she knows she has to. She closes her eyes, lacing up her shirt and pants blindly, and only opens them again to find her belt, her weapons, and the satchel with her personal belongings. 

“What are you doing?” Emma asks, sounding absolutely bewildered. “I thought you would, we would …”

Regina hears the rustle of sheets behind her but doesn’t turn around. “I’m not that kind of pirate, Princess,” she rasps.

“I ... never thought you were,” Emma replies quietly.

Regina scoffs at the blatant lie and walks over to the window. The second floor doesn’t pose a problem, she’s jumped off bigger heights than this and besides, she has magic. She knows she could just transport herself out of here but she feels as if she’s already revealed way too much about herself. She hasn’t felt this vulnerable in years, and she doesn’t even know why, which is why she needs to leave and hide away for a bit to think, to regain her equilibrium.

She opens the window but before she climbs out, she has one final thing to say. “This is my room,” she whispers over her shoulder, mindful of the guards that might still be around somewhere. “Feel free to use it for the next few days until you’ve figured out what to do. I’m sure Granny won’t mind. If you see Red in the morning, tell her we’ll meet at our usual spot in a week’s time.”

“But … but Captain … Wait!” 

Regina hears Emma’s feet hitting the floor and, seeing as it’s a very small room, she knows she has to leave _now_. With quick, graceful movements she’s through the window and standing on the small thatched overhang. One jump has her on the ground and then it’s only a short run to the tree line. She stops there, chancing one look back against her better judgment. 

The window she just climbed out of is closed and Emma is nowhere in sight.

_Good_ , she thinks but her heart feels like a lead weight in her chest.

 

TBC?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Emma tries to figure out what happened and has some explaining to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, thank you all for the interest in the premise of this story. I'm sorry it took a while to get back to it but among all the other excuses (swamped at work, brain too busy to write-brain etc), the characters in this story suddenly weren't at all sure they wanted more of their story told. It took some coaxing, and it might not be quite where I thought it would go, but here's another chapter. 
> 
> There will probably one or possibly two more chapters after this because I'm actually trying to keep it short this time.
> 
> P.S. No Regina in this chapter, at least not physically, but she features heavily in thoughts and conversations.

Emma watches the pirate’s retreating form for only a second before closing the window with a huff and tossing herself back onto the bed with a frustrated groan, kicking her bare legs in the air for good measure. She should be happy that she’s safe and has a free room for a week, and a nice, big, clean one at that, but for some reason she’s not. 

She’s not because her body is flushed, her heart still beating faster than normal and although Emma is quick to tell herself that it is anger that makes her feel that way — because how _dare_ that pirate tell her to undress and then climb into that too small bed with her, climbing between her legs as if she had any right! — but she knows that’s not it.

Emma turns her face, pressing her nose into the thin pillow and taking a deep breath. When nothing but the faint smell of lavender soap hits her nostrils she tells herself it isn’t disappointment she feels but relief.

Her body is still telling her something else. 

Emma settles deeper into the mattress and pulls the covers back over her body, her position similar enough to the one she was in before Captain Mills had fled that she shudders as the feeling returns and with it the racing heart and flushed skin, not to mention the throbbing between her legs that she’s never before felt in quite this manner.

That _other_ pirate, Hook, sure didn’t make her feel that way, even though he had been extremely persistent. So persistent, in fact, that Emma had to resort to hitting him over the head with his rum bottle to escape from his idea of _helping her_ when he got too close.

All she wanted was to escape from her mother’s clutches and her plans of marrying her off to that idiot prince from the north. It was bad luck that the pirate she’d asked for help turned out to be a drunken, smelly weasel with delusions of irresistibility who thought that she ran away from court to “experience the pirate life” as he put it.

_Well, not by_ his _side, that’s for sure,_ Emma thinks. In hindsight, she probably shouldn’t have assumed that Captain Mills would behave the same way Hook did but it was an honest mistake, wasn’t it? _I’ll just need to make it up to her,_ Emma decides as her hand slowly creeps along her still mostly naked body. _That is, if I ever see her again._

Without conscious thought Emma starts caressing her body. She’s not even actively thinking about the last half hour or so she tells herself but her body is demanding to be touched, and who is she to deny her body what it was denied by Regina’s untimely departure through the window. Emma wonders what she did to make Regina flee like that even as her fingers are trailing a path up and down her belly.

She must have offended Regina, she muses, with her assumption that she was going to take advantage of her plight. Emma snorts at herself. _Everyone_ would be offended when compared to someone like Hook, even though Regina didn’t even know that Emma had just escaped from a very similar situation. 

But there was something there between them, something that Emma is sure they both felt when their bodies were pressed together under the covers, moving against each other as intimately as two strangers could. Emma thinks back to the sound of Regina’s voice, rough and hoarse, and she wonders now if it could have been caused by more than just pretending to be a man bedding a whore in a room at an inn. _Maybe Regina was just as affected as I was?_

But why did she run then when Emma suggested they continue? Emma tries to remember what she said and as her fingers graze her curls underneath her linens she suddenly realizes, recalls the way she turned it into a joke as was her usual way. “You’re an idiot, Emma”.

With a nod she focuses back on the look in Regina’s eyes, the feeling of her mostly clothed body between her thighs. The coiled muscles underneath those leather pants and linen shirt, a result of her life at sea. And the more she thinks and remembers, the wetter she gets, even noticeable with just her fingertips inside her drawers. 

Just as Emma considers moving her hand further down to take herself off this edge she’s been sitting on for a while now, the door to the room bursts open and Red rushes inside, fully clothed and on alert.

“Captain, we need to go!” she blurts as she rushes in.

Emma yanks the hand from her drawers and hastily covers herself fully. “Aunt Red!”

“Emma?” Red walks over to the bed. “Where’s Regina?”

Emma grimaces. “I’m not sure?”

Red scoffs at the questioning tone. “What the hell happened here?” She sniffs the air for clues and winces as something hits her nostrils that she didn’t expect. Her eyes fixate on Emma and the way her hands clutch the covers to her bare chest. “No, really, Emma … what the _hell_ happened here? What did you do?”

Emma’s first reaction is to be insulted. “Why do you think _I_ did something?” she asks with a certain amount of snark even though she realized only minutes before that she was most certainly the one at fault. But her own godmother didn’t need to assume that, did she?

Red sighs deeply as she starts gathering the things her captain left behind. “Frankly, because the last time I saw you was about 12 years ago and I don’t _know_ you, Emma.” She straightens and looks over her shoulder at the princess in bed. “And I spent almost every day of those years by Regina’s side in good times and bad, and I know _her_ inside and out.”

“But …”

Red ignores her. “And I know that the captain’s been looking forward to some peace and quiet for a long time  — we all have — so for her to disappear on the first night of a rare week away from the ship and her responsibilities? That’s a pretty big sign that something happened here, and that you have something to do with it.” She winces as she breathes too deeply once more. “I should probably have left you to the guards …”

Emma sits up with a gasp. “No!” She scrambles out of the small bed, keeping the sheets wrapped around herself as much as possible trying not to show her godmother more than she absolutely has to. “I mean … I think it may be a little bit my fault but I don’t quite actually understand what happened myself,” she pleads. “But I can try to explain and then maybe you can explain why she … why Regina ran off.”

“That’s Captain Mills to you, Emma,” Red corrects gruffly, ever the loyal lieutenant, but then she nods with a heavy sigh. “Get dressed. Quickly.” 

“Oh yeah, you said something about having to get out of here …” Emma mutters, already gathering her things. “What’s going on?”

“I sent out scouts to keep an eye on the entrance to the cove after the crew chased off Hook and your mother’s guards, and a runner just came in to say that more guards are on the way,” Red explains. “Seems like dear Snow wants you back quite desperately.”

Emma groans and hastens her dressing even more. “Yeah, she does,” she confirms, “but I have no intention of being dragged back to the White Palace any time soon.”

“Want to tell me why you ran away and how you ended up here?” 

For the first time since bursting into the room, Red looked like the godmother Emma knew and loved. “Let’s make a deal,” Emma suggests, feeling a little lighter all of a sudden. “You take me with you and I’ll tell you everything. And you tell me all about Re— _Captain Mills_.” The look on her face is the one her godmother has never been able to say no to. “Please, Aunt Red? I really need to talk to Regina again. Please take me with you.” 

Red looks at the princess for a long moment, seeing both the young girl she knew and the woman she turned into. There’s no way she can leave her here, not without incurring Granny’s wrath. She’s also insanely curious as to what exactly happened between Emma and her captain that made Regina disappear like that. The disappearance as such isn’t much of an issue for Red seeing as the captain sometimes vanished for a few days when she needed her privacy — and Red has a good idea where her friend and captain is hiding out — but it doesn’t make her decision now any easier. If she takes Emma with her and Regina … 

In the end, she nods once again. “Deal.”

Emma’s smile is wide and blinding even in the semi-dark room, and she’s dressed and ready to leave in the time Red picks up her captain’s bag and long leather coat.

She just hopes and prays that this decision won’t come back to bite them all in the ass. Especially her.

 

o o o

 

Downstairs, the crew is assembled in the inn’s main room while Granny is bustling around the old wooden bar handing out what looks like travel rations.

“Granny,” Red says with a smile. “It’s not like we’re traveling far.”

“You never know,” Granny replies instantly, pressing a bundle into her granddaughter’s already mostly full hands. “I also thought I’d have you here for a week and see what happened …”

“I’m sorry,” Emma pipes up, only just realizing that she probably ruined Granny’s chance of catching up with Red. How often did the two even get to do that with Red being a member of a pirate crew and always on the run, or at least in faraway waters where Queen Snow’s long arms could reach. “I didn’t mean to ruin everyone’s week …”

“Eh, don’t worry, little lady,” a huge man offers with a shrug. “’Twas the guards more than you, I reckon.”

“What Little John said,” a smaller, slighter man adds. “Besides, sitting around too much is boring anyway.”

“Speak for yourself, Will,” Red grumbles but her lips are curling into a smile. “Alright, everyone, let’s head back to the Queen.”

“The queen?” Emma’s face pales.

“Our ship,” Will replies as if it were common knowledge. “The Evil Queen ... You’ll never see a finer vessel on all the—“

“Not that we have a problem with you giving orders, Red,” a beautiful dark-haired woman interrupts, her eyes wandering up the stairs behind Red and Emma, “but where’s the captain?”

Emma takes a step forward as she feels her cheeks now flush with heat. “Well, I think that definitely maybe could be my fault,” she reveals, one hand nervously scratching the back of her neck.

All eyes are on her in a moment while Red groans beside her, a pained“Really?” on her lips as she shakes her head. 

The dark-haired woman takes a step towards Emma. “Maybe? Definitely? Which is it?” Her face and tone cause Emma to take an involuntarily step back. “Who are you anyway?”

“Marian,” Red warns, getting between the two women. “Calm down, it was just a misunderstanding. The captain simply felt the need for some solitude and she’s going to meet up with us—“

“In a week,” Emma jumps in, realizing that Red has no idea what her captain said. She adds, her face on the dark-haired woman. “At the usual spot, wherever that may be ... And my name is Emma.”

“Solitude, eh?” Marian studies her for a moment, then nods. “Let’s go then,” she says finally, turning to the rest of the crew. “You heard Red.” 

Everyone is moving quickly through the back door, Red bringing up the rear just behind Emma, when Granny calls out, “Child, wait!”

Red stops and turns around. “I’m sorry we have to leave so soon, Granny,” she says apologetically, “but we can’t afford to tangle with that many guards, not without revealing that we’re back …”

Granny smiles gently. “I know, dearest. I just wanted to remind you that you were about to forget something.” She disappears behind the bar and turns back, a red bundle in her arms that she places into Red’s hands on top of everything else. “Now go … and take care of Emma. I don’t know what’s going on at that palace of Snow’s but the girl was terrified when she showed up here and it wasn’t _just_ because of that scoundrel, Hook.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Red promises, clutching her cloak. “Love you, Granny.”

“Go!”

And Red goes.

 

o o o

 

Emma has no idea how it happened but suddenly she’s standing on the deck of a huge ship. All she knows is that Red grabbed her around the waist and then she was being sucked through the air. Or at least that was what it felt like.

“What the hell was that?” she gasps, bent over to to try and catch her breath while simultaneously fighting down the wave of nausea rolling up from her stomach.

Red just grins, and behind her Emma can see the broad grins of the other pirates. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. We all were a little green around the gills the first time.”

Emma takes the flask Red offers her and takes a tentative sip. When that stays down, she takes a larger one and swallows eagerly, suddenly realizing that she is parched. “Thanks.”

“Feel better?” Red takes back the flask and drinks deeply. “I have no idea why but traveling like that always makes me thirsty.”

“And I repeat: what way is that?” Emma asks again, not quite used to not getting answers to her questions.

“Magic,” Red replies with a small shrug as if Emma should have known. Then she turns and starts giving commands, leaving Emma to stare at the distant shore until someone pushes her out of the way and down onto a box and she finally realizes the ship is moving and, judging from how small the lights in the cove look in the distance, have been for a while.

_Magic?_

 

o o o

 

The sun is high in the sky when Red appears next to Emma with some bread and cheese and a flagon of wine in her hand. “Here,” she offers the food when Emma looks up from her contemplation of the sea, “it’s probably been a while since you last ate.”

On cue Emma’s stomach begins to growl. “Thanks,” she murmurs even as she takes a huge bite out of the nutty bread and washes that down with a sip from the wine.

“It’s not much but it’ll tide us over until Tuck has time to throw together some real food,” Red explains with a smile. “We might have to go fishing later.” 

When the worst of Emma’s hunger is sated, she wonders if this is where she and Red will talk, and if this is where her immediate future will be decided. “Tell me more about this ship and its crew,” she ventures, testing the waters.

“Not until you tell me what went down between you and our captain,” Red shoots back with a smirk. “First she agrees to help you, and then she’s the one disappearing into the night? That sounds like quite the interesting hour in that room.”

“It wasn’t even an hour, was it?”

“Stop stalling, Princess,” Red says, and there’s a bit of command in there. All of a sudden it’s the pirate ship’s second-in-command standing before Emma, not her godmother.

“I’m not stalling” Emma denies, “not really. I’m just still not really sure what happened.”

“Now you’re just lying to your dear old godmother?” Red scoffs. 

“I’m no—“

“Listen, Emma,” Red interrupts impatiently. “Here’s what I know: I can smell Regina all over you, and your mingled scent was all over that room, so don’t tell me nothing happened or you don’t know what happened because I’m pretty fucking sure that’s not true.”

“How do you … How can—“

“Werewolf, Emma, remember?” Red taps her finger against Emma’s temple. “I didn’t think you’d forget something like that.”

“I didn’t,” Emma agrees. “But I might have forgotten what all that entails.”

“A very good nose among other things, for one thing.” Red shakes her head. “And believe me, that is something I wish I could switch off living on a pirate ship …”

Emma wrinkles her nose. “I can imagine.”

“I doubt you can, Princess, but the thought is appreciated. Now, why don’t you—“

“She kept calling me that, you know? Princess.” Emma interrupts softly, barely audible over the sounds of the wind and sea. “The captain, I mean, and I really hated that, especially now that I’ve … but anyway …” She takes a breath. “What happened was that there was a misunderstanding, I think. I thought the captain was going to be as vile as her reputation makes her out to be when she told me to undress and get into the bed — and I told her so — but when I did and …”

“And what?” Red asks when Emma doesn’t continue. “I mean I know that Regina would never hurt you but …” She grins a little wolfishly. “Of course it’s a bit unwise to accuse the woman who’s saving your bacon of molesting you. What did the captain say to that?”

“I think she …” Emma stops to think back to the way Regina had reacted. Now that she thinks about it, there could have been another layer underneath the cutting comments and rough orders. “I think she might have been hurt that I thought she was going to take advantage of me. Or offended?”

Red snorts. “I bet she was, and rightly so. Regina Mills has _never_ touched anyone who didn’t want to be touched by her. In fact she hasn’t even touched a whole lot of people who desperately _wanted_ to be touched by her.”

The thought of other people throwing themselves at Captain Mills disturbs Emma. “Are you one of those people?”

Red gives Emma a long look. “Once upon a time, yes,” she admits readily, watching Emma. “And your reaction tells me that you are one of those people as well, am I right?”

“Me?” Emma squeaks. “What makes you think that?”

“The way you’re blushing at the thought, for one,” Red replies. “The way your heartbeat is racing suddenly.” She pats Emma’s arm. “What happened when you got into that bed?”

Emma’s flush deepened. “The guards knocked on the door, and Regina jumped into bed with me and we pretended to … you know …”

Red does indeed know and smiles knowingly. “And you liked it.”

Emma nods. “Regina … the captain … she was really convincing, moaning and all, and her voice got all husky, and I think it affected me. But when the guards left, she fled the bed as if it were on fire and I with it.”

“Ah,” Red comments, beginning to see what might have caused Regina to run. “What did you do?”

“I tried to make light of the situation, I think, but,” Emma replies before her blush darkens further. “I wanted to …”

“You wanted to continue,” Red states, knowing full well the effect Regina Mills had on men and women alike. “Did you tell her that?”

“Yes … no …” Emma shakes her head. “Well, not directly.”

“What _did_ you say?”

“I think it was something along the lines of _I thought there would be kisses first but that we could remedy that_ and when she jumped after that I told her that I thought we’d continue,” Emma repeats what she can remember. “But she just said that she wasn’t that kind of pirate …”

“And she’s most definitely not,” Red confirms. “Why would you think I’d put your life and safety into the hand of some evil villain? Despite everything that happened between me and Snow, you’re still my goddaughter, Emma!”

“I don’t know what I thought!” Emma bursts out. “All I know is that I’d just escaped from the clutches of Hook who agreed to help me only to try and have his way with me as soon as I was on his ship. I managed to fight him off until we arrived at the cove and then I ran.” 

“Well, that certainly explains your reaction to Regina’s solution but …”

“But what?”

“But I wonder why you were so hell-bent on coming with us after all that?” Red muses aloud. “After all, we could have just as easily hidden you away somewhere else or diverted the guards.” She doesn’t mention that Granny would not have liked that and that it never really was an option. “You would have been quite a bit more comfortable hiding out in Regina’s room.”

“She even told me to use her room for the rest of the week,” Emma muses. “Just before she jumped out of the window.”

Red chuckles at the image. “You must have gotten to her good …” She says under her breath but Emma hears it just the same.

“What do you mean?” Emma’s gaze is curious and guileless.

Red groans inwardly, knowing that she should have kept her mouth shut because stopping now would probably not help. “I think I have a pretty good idea why Regina ran” she says as casually as possible, not adding her thoughts that her main information came not just from what Emma told her but also what her nose told her from the pheromones in the captain’s room. “But I’m still not sure why you are here now, and not back there.”

“I’m … I …” Emma stops. What is she doing here? Why _did_ she have the feeling she absolutely had to go after Regina? “I’m not entirely sure,” she finally offers, “I just know I need to talk to Regina again, need to explain that …”

“Explain what?”

Emma shrugs helplessly. “That I meant some of the things I said and not meant others? That I really liked her once I realized that she wasn’t anything like Hook? That I was disappointed when she left?” She tosses her hand in the air. “I don’t know, Aunt Red.”

Red nods with a knowing smile. “Can I be blunt, Emma?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You enjoyed whatever Regina did while you two were in that room and you wanted it to continue, right?” Emma nods. “You want her to do it again?” Another nod. “My question is — and here we come to the blunt part — do you just want a quick adventure with a more palatable pirate captain or do you want something else?”

Emma’s reply is immediate. “Something else,” she confirms steadily. “Something … more.” She grabs Red’s arms. “I know it’s outrageous but Red … there was something there, something happened between us in those too few minutes, and I want to feel that again and again, and I want much more of it.”

Red smiles and, hoping she’s not making the mistake of a lifetime, pulls Emma up. “Welcome aboard then, Emma Swan. Let me show you to the captain’s quarters.”

“The captain’s quarters?”

“Indeed,” Red confirms. “We might not get Regina back for another week or so,” — although she has plans to at least make contact with Regina before that — “but at least you can be comfortable while you figure out how you want to convince the captain not to throw you overboard once she’s back.”

Emma swallows loud enough to be heard over the sound of the sea. “If you think that’s okay.”

“I’ll take the blame,” Red assures her but Emma doesn’t look convinced. Red grins, perversely looking forward to how all of this was going to play out. It might be the last thing she ever does but if there was even a small chance that Regina could finally find some happiness, she’d shoulder the blame from here to eternity. 

That does not mean, however, that she wasn’t about to have some fun along the way. “Say, Emma, how are you in the kitchen? Ever gutted a fish?”


End file.
